1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus which reads a document placed on a transparent platen of an image reading apparatus, processes the read image, and outputs the processed image and, in particular, to the image processing apparatus which collectively reads a plurality of documents placed on the transparent platen and outputs the images on a document-by-document basis.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, image information is frequently dealt with along with the development of a communication network, an increase in the speed of a computer, and an increase in the capacity of a storage medium. There is an increasing demand for accurate and high-speed reading of image information scanned particularly by a scanner and the like. Up to now, there has been known a method for extracting an object from the document placed on a transparent platen to automatically determine a document area such as a document position and a document size. A first method determines a document area based on all the extracted objects. The first method is effective when it is previously known that only a single document is placed. A second method extracts an individual object from a plurality of objects and determines a document area based on the extracted individual objects. The second method does not limit a document to a single one, therefore, for each individual object, an area of the document can be determined respectively.